Auction Catalogue

17 September 2004

Starting at 11:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part I)

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 1237 x

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17 September 2004

Hammer Price:
£800

An unusual Second World War Mediterranean operations D.S.M. group of five awarded to Engine Room Artificer 1 G. W. Hammond, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his services in the captured Italian schooner Maria Giovanna: he was afterwards among those lost aboard the destroyer H.M.S. Blean when she was torpedoed on 11 December 1942

Distinguished Service Medal
, G.VI.R. (C/MX. 58134 G. W. Hammond, E.R.A. 1); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, the campaign awards in their original card forwarding box addressed to the recipient’s widow, extremely fine (5) £800-1000

D.S.M. London Gazette 25 November 1941. The original recommendation states:

‘For excellent service in the engine room of
Maria Giovanna despite the fact that the engine room was on fire and making water after a delayed action bomb had exploded under the ship. Hammond organised a bucket brigade to bail out the water and owing to his untiring efforts the ship was able to make port and have repairs made, which undoubtedly saved the ship.’

George William Hammond was born in Brighton, Sussex in October 1898 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy Artificer 2nd Class in July 1914. In August 1918 he joined the ship’s company of the battleship H.M.S.
Superb as an E.R.A. 5th Class, thereby winning entitlement to the British War and Victory Medals. And in October 1931 he was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal.

Recalled on the the renewal of hostilities, he was recommended for his D.S.M. in July 1941. The delayed-action bomb that exploded under the
Maria Giovanna had been dropped by one of two Heinkels that attacked her several times off Tobruk, an action to which A. B. Palmer refers in his memoirs, Pedlar Palmer of Tobruk:

‘During a determined attack by two Heinkels,
Maria Giovanna sustained 79 holes from near bomb misses and cannon-fire: 26 of these were below the waterline. Three men were killed and five others wounded - a big proportion out of a total ship’s company of twelve, including the Captain. With six feet of water in the hold, and another eight feet in the engine room, the schooner managed to struggle to Mersa Matruh and thence to Alexandria where five plates were needed to replace those damaged.’

The Admiralty’s official account of naval operations in the Mediterranean April 1941 to January 1943 also refers to the activities of the
Maria Giovanna, in addition to adding some background information to the story of the special “Inshore Squadron” in which she served:

‘The heavy losses in merchant ships decided the Commander-in-Chief to substitute destroyers, tank landing craft and schooners for carrying supplies to Tobruk and bringing away wounded and prisoners of war. The
Zingarella proved unequal to the wear and tear of the Tobruk “Tramlines” and was withdrawn early for an engine refit; but the Maria Giovanna and the Tiberio, and a flotilla of sailing schooners of which the most famous was the Syrian Kheir-el-Dine commanded by Lieutenant R. B. McAusland, R.N.R., between them carried to Tobruk over 1,400 tons of supplies. Manned by naval ratings, there was about all their exploits a disdain of the enemy and a contempt for death that had a fine Elizabethan flavour; it is said that even gold earrings were not unknown among them.

The
Maria Giovanna was under the command of Lieutenant A. B. Palmer, R.N.R. He required of his ship’s company three things - that they should work like blacks while work was necessary, shoot straight, and fight as long as they were conscious. He had only one punishment, dismissal from the ship, and his infrequent despatches, masterpieces of the laconic recording of essentials, invariably concluded in the same way: No complaints. No requestmen. No defaulters.’

An example of one of Palmer’s “masterpieces” was his log entry for a ten minute action against an Italian Savoia 79, which realised it had bitten off more than it could chew and sheered off for base. ‘Consider we handed out more than we received’, wrote Palmer, before listing the casualties: ‘Pluto our dog sprained his ankle getting out of the way.’

The
Maria Giovanni was grounded west of Tobruk on 22 November 1941, and Lieutenant Palmer, already the winner of a D.S.C., was taken P.O.W., adding an M.B.E. to his honours for subsequent escaping activity in late 1944.

Hammond, meanwhile, had joined the newly launched Hunt-class destroyer
Blean. Sadly, however, he was among the 89 crew members lost in her when she was torpedoed off Oran by the U-443 on 11 December 1942. Presumably his Great War and L.S. & G.C. Medals were lost on the same occasion. He was then aged 44 years and left a widow resident at Highgate, Middlesex.